Wearables, But Only for CEOs
The iMcLaren would be a wearable for the 1%, the 8 immutable laws of working in the future, and algorithms that pamper the hell out of you
BLUEPRINT // the future of work // ISSUE #6 SEPTEMBER 23, 2016
Co-workers,
Like everybody’s favorite one-meme wonder once sang, it’s Friday, Friday, gotta get down on Friday. Pretty sure she was singing about this newsletter. Speaking of which! This week has seen some interesting #futureofwork news.
Not least: Apple is rumored to be in talks to acquire McLaren. Some folks say Apple’s really after McLaren Applied Tech, the car co.’s consulting arm that applies racing tech to other industries. Writing in Blueprint, Ian Frisch says an iMcLaren would become an extension of the office — “a wearable for CEOs.” Inspired writing, check it out.
Also in Blueprint this week: our globetrotting columnist Faris has a wildly interesting piece on The 8 Immutable Laws of the Future of Work (Hofstadter’s Law! The Lake Wobegon Effect!). Read that, be smarter at your next meeting.
Looking forward,
Dept. of Future Possibilities
What we’re reading
There’s an algorithm that predicts what wealthy people want at luxury hotels. Turns out, it’s more breakfast options [Buzzfeed]. A consulting firm combined machine learning with scraping TripAdvisor reviews, revealing nuances in customer feedback that changed marketing and service strategies at The Beverly Hills Hotel. Algorithms: they’ll pamper the hell out of you.
- Pair with: Every one of Marriotts’ 30 hotel brands explained [Skift]
- Also: Maybe go to school to learn hospitality #AI: You’re only underemployed if you’re a liberal arts major [The Atlantic]
The average vehicle is used only 4% of the time and parked the other 96%. Our cities are built around the automobile [Medium], says Lyft co-founder John Zimmer (a reality also lamented by the late, great Jane Jacobs in The Death and Life of Great American Cities). Zimmer’s predictions for the next ten years: 1. autonomous fleets of vehicles; 2. private car ownership dies; and 3. cities’ built environments will change. A fascinating vision.
- Pair with: Uber Will Not Kill Car Ownership [Ale Resnik]
- Also: 50 Mind-Blowing Implications of Self-Driving Cars [Geoff Nesnow]
- And: How We Mapped the Cities Weirdest Streets [Transit]
- BTW: So, uh, what about the DMV? [The Atlantic]
Dept. of New Tools
New software we’re excited about
Radical Candor is a new app that aims to improve working relationships through radically candid feedback. Funded by the Slack Fund. Just seeing the graph below has changed how we speak with co-workers.
Dept. of Who to Follow on Twitter
Future of work thought leaders we’re keen on this week
- John Hagel: Author, founded the Deloitte Center for Edge Innovation, writes a mean blog post.
- Mark Gurman: breaks Apple news at Bloomberg.
- Brian Solis: chief analyst at Altimeter.
Dept. of Future Graphs
What we’re sharing
Dept. of Goodbyes
Adios, friend. Thanks for hanging out. As always, be a dear and follow Blueprint on twitter . We’re more fun than a barrel of push pins.
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